Uh-Oh: From Software Said They Want To Make Bloodborne Less Punishing, Appeal to a ‘Wider Audience’

Hey, stop freaking out, guys.

From Software unveiled Bloodborne in conjunction with Sony Japan back at E3 two months ago. The game would already be a big deal, because the last time those two companies worked together, we got Demon’s Souls, which in turn led to Dark Souls, arguably the most perfect RPG ever created. It doesn’t help that Bloodborne itself looks absolutely amazing, and like it would almost single handedly justify a PS4.

However, From Software has gone and perhaps unintentionally, stirred the hornet’s nest. They have said something that is likely to not go over well with their new, expanded fanbase of over 2 million.

“In terms of who the game is aimed at, and who we want to capture in terms of the audience, obviously we can’t betray or disappoint the fans out there,” said producer Masaaki Yamagiwa. “They’re very, very important. They’ll be the main ambassadors of the game.”

“But we do want more people to share in this experience,” he admitted.

So right there, off the bat, that sounds like good news, right? He says he wants to make the game accessible to a wider audience, but he also says he is aware of the expectations of Souls fans, and that he doesn’t want to disappoint them. He actually even talks about the new online mode, and how it will help expand the appeal of the game.

But then what he says next comes off as slightly worrying:

“You died a lot in the previous games, and you had to persevere, but one of our main goals with this game is that we don’t want to focus on punishing the player,” he said.

“We want to deliver a game that gamers love. If the gamer likes the game they’ll definitely like it enough to have that bit of perseverance, but the way in which we’re making the game? The sense of punishment is much less.”

‘The sense of punishment is less.’ Uh-oh.

Personally? I think that the messaging here is a bit confused (maybe because of a poor translation?). I mean, they say they want the game to appeal to a wider audience, they say they won’t dumb down the difficulty, but then they say the game will be less punishing than Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls? How will that work? Those two games, and especially Dark Souls, struck the perfect balance between high punishment and high reward, and that is what led to the feeling of accomplishment that so characterized progress in those titles.

On the other hand, I think these guys deserve the benefit of the doubt. They brought us Demon’s Souls, which was great, and Dark Souls, which was absolutely amazing, so they probably know what they’re doing.

hahaha nother dumbed down console game, dumb down the hardware specs and dumbed down gameplay, kind of fitting really!!

demfax

The only dumb thing here is you.

Psionicinversion

go back to your 780Ti and damage controlling for the consoles you dont own

d0x360

Dumb down console game? You do know the soul series started on consoles…

The only time console games are “dumbed” down is when they game is making full use of KB/mouse and just can’t work on a controller.

Why are you posting to a console site when you clearly don’t care for them?

Psionicinversion

the games difficulty is dumbed down for a wider audience so they dont get annoyed and quit

d0x360

That’s gaming in general and it has everything to do with attracting the masses and nothing to do with consoles.

It goes in cycles and has for all long as gaming has been around.

Psionicinversion

yeah tis true but for fans of dark souls and demon souls might be a blow but i read something somewhere that the reason why AI hasnt advanced that much in difficulty is because no one wants it. The majority seem to love dumb easily killable AI that makes them feel good and not frustrate them so guess its gamers to blame to

d0x360

Good combat AI is the main reason I really enjoy ninja gaiden 1&2 (modern not nes). Throw that game on hard and you can duel with AI all day. If you don’t know how to properly fight and defend they will pick you apart.
It’s a hard line to tow for a Dev and publisher. Make it too hard and you limit your audience. Make it cheaply hard and you limit it further. Make it somewhat easy for the average person and you gain audience but alienate the gamers who will stand by you regardless of genre.

CD projeckt red is really good in that regard. They don’t dumb down anything. Even in easy mode which is really easy all the complexity is there you just die less and kill faster but ramp the difficulty up and the AI will fight back much like a person would. They win over fans with a really mature complex story and world with rewarding combat but also make that story accessible to people who aren’t good at combat or dont understand/care to understand how traps or signs work or don’t Want to craft mutagens for modifying their stats when leveling up.

I think with the surge in popularity of the souls series and some of the old school hard indies we might start seeing developers making games that can please both sides of the argument but its going to take timetime cause doing it well it so hard

Psionicinversion

yeah spose it would be better if they can incorporate something for both types of players but like you said hard to strike a balance. Have you seen the uncompressed version of witcher 3 trailer? its stunning, would be well worth a GPU upgrade. i hope they do a console uncompressed comparison to see how much better the PC version really is.

I haven’t no but I definitely will. I can’t upgrade my PC till March. So I’ll get it on one of the consoles and then eventually I’ll get it on pc during a steam sale.

I beat 1&2 on PC so I have a story to continue and I beat 2 again on 360. I’ve been hoping they announce a save continuation for the 360 version but I’m not holding my breathe.

Psionicinversion

prolly not, never get cross platform saves i tink

jzgames11

They could just progress differently , Souls is typically very hard in the beginning for casuals so they get frustrated and quit right away. If they get people to play 3-5 hours without total frustration and ramp up the difficulty as they go, maybe more people will enjoy it. I love it the way it is, but I have several frien s who got pissed at souls and saidf it I hate this game, tho they really hate their skills and impatience . :p

Mark

Dude, Ninja Gaiden 1 was an all time punishing favorite for me. The controls were more than responsive, and the enemies would surround u and go to work. They were very smart. Did u beat the original Hurricane Pack (one of the first DLC pieces on Live)? They had u run up the stairs in the final level, and once u reach the top there was a portal, that led to a closed room full of enemies, giving ur hands no time to rest. Darn I love NG1, and 2 was good also. Wish Itagaki never left. But I understand why.

d0x360

This is fine by me. Not every game needs to be punishing. from software has been around along time and they have always made games everyone can jump into.

Games like dark souls need to be around but they also need to be spaced out. If we play punishing games too often it will get old fast especially since it takes true talent to make a hard game good instead of making it cheap.